of sleep and sweat

(and a cool giveaway…you just have to read through all of my rambling first to get there)

So, guess what? I’ve finally gotten back to running as much as I talk about running. Ha! This week will be the first week I’ve logged over 30 miles of just running since November. (And according to dailymile, I also ran a martahon that week, so I’m not sure that really counts as consistency, haha.) And not to mention 3 of those days this week were biking and swimming. So who do I have to thank for the energy to get the work done? Two little toddler men.

You see, a crazy thing has happened here in the G-T household. Something I daydreamed of, fondly remembering from what felt like a lifetime ago. Something I not so quietly envied of others. Something I thought I would never see again.

Until now.

And I hate to tell you all about it, for fear of jinxing my luck, but frankly I still believe it’s too good to be true, so here it is:

My kids are sleeping through the night.

And no, not the “new parent sleeping through the night” which refers to about 4-5 hours, we are talking adult standards here. As in, I put my kids to bed at 8 pm (they willingly go!) and they don’t make a peep until 8 am. And it feels like heaven. I am sleeping, actually SLEEPING, sprawled out across my very own, toddler free bed, for 8 hours a night. And all it took was a major renovation of our house and bedroom assignments. Turns out I have one kid that will fall asleep anytime and anywhere, and another one (the baby) who has set a very rigid sleep routine, and when it’s time for bed, gives you a dirty “GET OUT OF MY ROOM NOW” look. Huh.

No more trying not to fall asleep in class! No more feeling too utterly exhausted to train! This is FANTASTIC! Well, except, there is a tiny predicament I’ve been facing with this new schedule. I set my alarm for somewhere around 5:30 am to try and squeeze my workouts in before the kids are up and before I have to go to school. But when that darn alarm goes off, I just don’t want to get out of my nice warm cozy bed. I don’t want to give up this fabulous thing I’ve FINALLY been reconnected with-sleep! (ducking from the evil glares of sleep deprived new moms and dads everywhere). I know it sounds crazy but in some ways it’s easier to get out of bed when you don’t sleep much, because you’ve come to accept the fact that you just aren’t going to get more than 4 or 5 interrupted hours a night. You deal with it, because frankly it’s more painful to try and fight the exhaustion. But now, when no one other than a little piece of obnoxiously beeping technology, is telling me to get out of bed, it’s hard to fight of the “just 30 more minutes won’t hurt anyone” mentality.

Except to bring this blog post full circle, it hurts my training. Ok the sleep HELPS my training, the sleeping in hurts my training. One way to find the motivation to get up off your butt is knowing it’s now or never. Now that my training is getting a little more intense it’s getting harder to squeeze it between classes or take the kids with me. Yasso 800’s with the jogger aren’t as fun as they used to be, now that it feels like the tots have gained a good 20lbs between the two of them. But when the bed is so warm and cozy….oh man it’s so hard to get up!

So to fight this awful alarm clock turmoil, I’ve got to dig deep. Deep down into that piece of me that wants a marathon PR more than anything. The part of me that finally wants to put in the time and effort to properly train for a full marathon, so I’m not hobbling/shuffling/walking along around mile 20 thinking “oh look, I half assed my way through another one!”. Last week I came across this quote: “Before you make it to the finish, you have to make it to the start” and it really struck a chord with me. Lately, I’ve been full of little quotes that give me a good kick in the rear every time I repeat them to myself. Another one, care of Coach Ed via Gina by way of my sister Holly’s Team Z triathlon team…”Trust in the Training”. That one works really well when I’m grumbling to myself “zone 2 sucks”.

But the one that now kicks me out of bed in the morning comes by way of a neat little company called “inperspire“. Inperspire makes little gym towels with awesome sayings on them. Something so simple, but so motivating. When Dana with inperspire contacted me a few weeks ago asking if I’d like to try one out and review it, I said of course. I looked around at their site and picked this one:

And unfortunately, I can’t review how well this towel wicks away sweat or keeps me motivated in the gym. Because I tacked that sucker on the wall directly across from my bed. And I can tell you, it has done a great job at getting my butt out of bed and ready to run when the everyone else, including the sun, are still fast asleep.

Motivation is EVERYWHERE my friends! And have no fear, the little towel is not destined for a life of wall tapestry, I’m taking it to transition at my first triathlon (23 days, ack!)

Dana graciously offered to give away one of these cool towels, with design of your choice, to one of my readers. They are 16″x25″, 100% cotton, and come in 28 unique designs/sayings.

So you want to win? Go to http://www.inperspire.com/ and tell me, in a comment here, which design you would pick. For a bouns entry, leave a separate comment with a quote/saying/motivator that you would like to see on a towel. Bonus entry # 2, tweet, blog, facebook, whatever a link to this contest, and let me know. Contest ends next Sunday at midnight, and I’ll randomly draw a winner Monday 4/5/10 (one week). Good luck!

I’d like to see a towel that says “It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be done.” I am such a perfectionist that if it isn’t going to be just right, sometimes I don’t do it at all. I’m slowly getting to the point where getting it done well is good enough.

For a bonus entry: I would like a towel saying the equivalent of “A healthy mind in a healthy body” in Ancient Greek. Most people attribute the saying to Ancient Romans (in latin sit mens sana in corpore sano). However, I sternly object 🙂 The Greeks were there first with “Nous ygis en somati ygiy” or something phonetically similar. Also, the ancient Greek letters look a lot more cool than the Latin characters. When you have too much work, it is easy to justify exercise by saying you need it to keep your sanity. Back to my dissertation now 🙂

Sleep is underrated, it truly makes a difference between crummy-get me out of here and awesome-those 9 miles were great! kind of runs. My kids are light sleepers, so I have to be super quiet while getting ready to head out early in the a.m. I’m a sweaty kind of runner, so one of these towels would be handy. I like “I run because I can”.

Oh, and as a bonus, I’d like to see: “Running=My sanity”. I also would like to see: “I am a runner” because I’ve heard too many people in my training group say they don’t feel they are one yet, even though we run together twice a week. Own it!!

Seriously, is there anything better than sleep? Glad you are getting it. As to the towel, I am very dull here…I use that Neitzche (sp?) quote all the time, so I really dig that one, with the little addition.

Totally enjoyed the logo on the towel.. I think I may tell myself that when I get up early in the morning for my workout.. Instead of racing for the coffee pot tomorrow I plan to race to the healthclub.. !!

Congrats on the kiddos sleeping. My son is 5 months now and I start brainstorming ways to sneak my run in with thoughts of getting up at 4 AM. Too hard to do now when it’s still a sort of cold and dark in NY – but perhaps once the summer comes I’ll be getting up that early – especially if I start training for NYC or Marine Corps marathon!

My 11 year old has been having problems sleeping, meaning everyone has had problems sleeping 😉 So I know where you are coming from. Congrats and I hope it is long lasting for you! Also, thanks for the quote. I am motivated by things like that too! (Now to get back into my running shoes. Any day now…)

Love these towels! I’d order the “I am worth it” and the “Get this junk outta my trunk”!! Super fun!

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Meet Heather

I'm Heather, mom of two, ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist, and an overzealous athlete who cannot focus on a single discipline, so I train for all of them at the same time. When in doubt, I run...and then write about it. Read More…

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